Illustration by April Milne
great macro swelling
carpet bomb ecosystem
broken off
broken twice off in say
one century of your time
slow fish peer up against
throbbing nights, fragile
glass bodies
a perception wholly in the form
of a short past’s
relentless abstractions
comforting conforming disconnect
as long as there’s Wi-Fi
to look up the word abstemious
to translate a Chinese character
that some old Korean poet used
and to make an order online
next day delivery type shit
fluffy faux rain beating
on electrochemical umbrellas
spattering on filthy designer kicks
symptomatic storms of the
long-terminal
don’t forget to ask about it on
the tour
faceless (wo)men loiter in semi-circles,
others make their way through the crowd
because no one else does and it just doesn’t
have the same effect that
it used to
Peyton M. Bechard is a graduate student at York University in Humanities, focusing on cultural differences on the divided Korean peninsula. He is currently working and living in Yanbian (Korean Autonomous Region), China and performing cultural and business exchanges with the DPRK. His work can be found at pmbechard.ca. This piece was written upon his first physical interaction with Seoul.
Illustration by April Milne